Furious - Crazy for You - Love - The Marriage(s) of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor

Here is what I like about reading:  You Never Know!  I expected to a lot of crazy stuff  in this book - that was there.  But, I also saw real love.  I mean, deep and unmistakable real love.  Not even all the money, drugs and alcohol could destroy what Dick and Liz felt for each other. In the end, they loved each other as much as they did from the beginning. 

I just finished Furious Love by Sam Kasner and Nancy Schoenberger.    It’s the story of Electric Love on the set of Cleopatra January 22, 1962.   When Richard Burton laid eyes on Elizabeth Taylor for the first time he laughed out loud.  He was dressed in a short-short tunic. His muscular thighs were bursting at the seams. Elizabeth was made up bright green eye-liner.  It was so thick it looked liked it was applied with a spoon. 

 But, that wasn’t the funny part.  As Marc Anthony fell madly in love with Cleopatra,  Richard and Elizabeth began a life-long love affair.  Richard would soon abandon the wife and children he dearly loved. Elizabeth would turn her back on her husband Eddie Fisher.  This was the funny part: from that very first scene everything they believed in – their families, ambitions, moralities – no longer mattered.

I liked the read from the beginning to the end.  The passion they shared for their craft never wavers.  Le Scandale distances them from their fans but brings them closer together.  The booze and drugs ignite vicious fights and inspire tearful reunions.    There’s money, diamonds and jets.  They live their dreams out in front of us.  My favorite part, however, is the letter Richard writes to Elizabeth just before he dies.   This is the one that appears in the book’s preface and sets the tone for the narrative.  I mean, beyond his brilliant talents as an actor, Richard can write.  Throughout three marriages and three divorces, he professes his love for Elizabeth with a series of letters, poems and apologies.   Drugs and alcohol ate away his talent and health, but they couldn’t touch his heart.  On his deathbed, Richard wrote  Elizabeth he loved her more than ever.  He just wanted to come home, he said.